Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Claude Opus 4 vs Claude Opus 4.6 benchmark

Name: Claude Opus 4 vs Claude Opus 4.6 AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Claude Opus 4 (Anthropic) and Claude Opus 4.6 (Anthropic) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Claude Opus 4.6 is ahead by 84 points (1,574 vs 1,490; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Claude Opus 4.6 resolves 75.9% versus 72.5% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Claude Opus 4.6 streams faster (64 tok/s) while Claude Opus 4.6 is the cheaper output token ($25/1M). Claude Opus 4.6 has the larger context window (1M tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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Anthropic

Claude Opus 4

First Claude 4 Opus generation. Baseline for opus 4 vs opus 5.

Elo 1,490$75/1M out

Anthropic

Claude Opus 4.6

Follow-on Opus release. Slightly behind 4.5 on official SWE-bench bash-only in the last published sweep; stronger long-horizon agent traces.

Elo 1,574$25/1M out

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Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet vs GPT-5

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Opus 4 (0)vsClaude Opus 4.6 (10)

Claude Opus 4: 0W (0%)Overall: Claude Opus 4.6Claude Opus 4.6: 10W (100%)

← Claude Opus 4Claude Opus 4.6 →

Claude Opus 4.6 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,490vs1,574

Coding Elo

1,502vs1,570

SWE-bench

72.5%vs75.9%

LiveBench

66.8%vs72%

GPQA Diamond

80.4%vs84.8%

Claude Opus 4: 0WClaude Opus 4.6: 5W

Claude Opus 4.6 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

58 tok/svs64 tok/s

Time to first token

390 msvs360 ms

Claude Opus 4: 0WClaude Opus 4.6: 2W

Claude Opus 4.6 (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$75/1Mvs$25/1M

Input price

$15/1Mvs$5/1M

Context window

200kvs1M

Claude Opus 4: 0WClaude Opus 4.6: 3W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageClaude Opus 4.6 6/6

Preference Elo

Claude Opus 4.6

84 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Claude Opus 4.6

6 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

Claude Opus 4.6

$50.00/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,490

EloHigh is better

1,574+6%

Code Elo

High is better

1,502

Code EloHigh is better

1,570+5%

LiveBench

High is better

66.8%

LiveBenchHigh is better

72%+8%

SWE-bench

High is better

72.5%

SWE-benchHigh is better

75.9%+5%

GPQA

High is better

80.4%

GPQAHigh is better

84.8%+5%

TTFT

Low is better

390 ms

TTFTLow is better

360 ms+8%

Speed

High is better

58 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

64 tok/s+10%

In $

Low is better

$15/1M

In $Low is better

$5/1M+200%

Out $

Low is better

$75/1M

Out $Low is better

$25/1M+200%

Context

High is better

200k

ContextHigh is better

1M+400%

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 67% with Claude Opus 4.6

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

Claude Opus 4$1,650.00 / mo

In: $525.00Out: $1125.00

Claude Opus 4.6$550.00 / mo

In: $175.00Out: $375.00

Estimated Cost Delta

Claude Opus 4.6 is estimated to save $1,100.00/month ($13,200/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Claude Opus 4.6:Pick Claude Opus 4.6 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Claude Opus 4.6:Pick Claude Opus 4.6 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
3
Claude Opus 4.6:Pick Claude Opus 4.6 for million-token RAG or long-document jobs.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Opus 4.6

Higher SWE-bench (75.9%).

High-volume chatClaude Opus 4.6

Lower output list price ($25/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIClaude Opus 4.6

Lower TTFT (360 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Opus 4.6

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Opus 4.6

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 4.6).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Opus 4.6	Higher SWE-bench (75.9%).
High-volume chat	Claude Opus 4.6	Lower output list price ($25/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Claude Opus 4.6	Lower TTFT (360 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Opus 4.6	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Opus 4.6	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 4.6).

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

launchMay 10, 2026

Claude Opus 4.6: the May follow-on that still shows up in old bookmarks

Slightly behind 4.5 on one official SWE-bench sweep; stronger long-horizon traces. We keep the row for old vs URLs.

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LIVE

Anthropic

Claude Opus 4

Elo 1,490

LiveBench66.8%

SWE-bench72.5%

Speed58 tok/s

Output cost$75/1M

Anthropic

Claude Opus 4.6

Elo 1,574

LiveBench72%

SWE-bench75.9%

Speed64 tok/s

Output cost$25/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Opus 4 or Claude Opus 4.6?: Claude Opus 4.6 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,574). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Claude Opus 4 or Claude Opus 4.6?: Claude Opus 4.6 leads SWE-bench at 75.9% vs 72.5%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Claude Opus 4.6 output tokens are $25/1M versus $75/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude Opus 4 or Claude Opus 4.6?: Claude Opus 4.6 has the lower time-to-first-token (360 ms vs 390 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Claude Opus 4.6 accepts 1M tokens versus 200k.
Can I self-host either model?: Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude Opus 4 and Claude Opus 4.6 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Claude Opus 4 matchups →|All Claude Opus 4.6 matchups →

Claude Opus 4 vs Claude 3 Opus (previous opus)Claude Opus 4 vs Claude Opus 4.5 (next opus)Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Opus 4.5 (previous opus)Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Opus 4.8 (next opus)Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4 Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Opus 4.6

Claude Opus 4 vs Claude Opus 4.6 benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Opus 4 (0)vsClaude Opus 4.6 (10)

Claude Opus 4: 0W (0%)Overall: Claude Opus 4.6Claude Opus 4.6: 10W (100%)

← Claude Opus 4Claude Opus 4.6 →

Claude Opus 4.6 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,490vs1,574

Coding Elo

1,502vs1,570

SWE-bench

72.5%vs75.9%

LiveBench

66.8%vs72%

GPQA Diamond

80.4%vs84.8%

Claude Opus 4: 0WClaude Opus 4.6: 5W

Claude Opus 4.6 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

58 tok/svs64 tok/s

Time to first token

390 msvs360 ms

Claude Opus 4: 0WClaude Opus 4.6: 2W

Claude Opus 4.6 (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$75/1Mvs$25/1M

Input price

$15/1Mvs$5/1M

Context window

200kvs1M

Claude Opus 4: 0WClaude Opus 4.6: 3W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Opus 4.6

Higher SWE-bench (75.9%).

High-volume chatClaude Opus 4.6

Lower output list price ($25/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIClaude Opus 4.6

Lower TTFT (360 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Opus 4.6

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Opus 4.6

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 4.6).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Opus 4.6	Higher SWE-bench (75.9%).
High-volume chat	Claude Opus 4.6	Lower output list price ($25/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Claude Opus 4.6	Lower TTFT (360 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Opus 4.6	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Opus 4.6	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 4.6).

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Opus 4 or Claude Opus 4.6?

Claude Opus 4.6 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,574). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Claude Opus 4 or Claude Opus 4.6?

Claude Opus 4.6 leads SWE-bench at 75.9% vs 72.5%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Claude Opus 4.6 output tokens are $25/1M versus $75/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Claude Opus 4 or Claude Opus 4.6?

Claude Opus 4.6 has the lower time-to-first-token (360 ms vs 390 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Claude Opus 4.6 accepts 1M tokens versus 200k.

Can I self-host either model?

Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude Opus 4 and Claude Opus 4.6 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

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Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Claude Opus 4.6

Claude Opus 4.6

Claude Opus 4.6

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Claude Opus 4.6: the May follow-on that still shows up in old bookmarks

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CompareLLM Matrix

Claude Opus 4

Claude Opus 4.6

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Claude Opus 4.6

Claude Opus 4.6

Claude Opus 4.6

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Claude Opus 4.6: the May follow-on that still shows up in old bookmarks

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Claude Opus 4

Claude Opus 4.6

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons